As artificial intelligence changes how humans work and learn — from transforming how we create and consume information to creating more efficient workflows — how does Waldorf school prepare students for the evolving challenges and opportunities brought by AI technology?
Before diving in, let’s clarify what we mean by AI. The term AI is used in colloquial language as a broad umbrella covering many different categories including:
Generative AI: creating text, images, or other media
Each of these categories has its own capabilities, and different subsets of AI can be combined to create powerful automations and seemingly human-like interactions. "We kind of anthropomorphize the technology," remarked High Mowing alum Kush Mohan '22, founder of a conversational AI startup in Barcelona, Spain. "We give it human-like characteristics, and we think that it's going to be the savior of all our problems." Yet at its core, AI simply learns patterns of language, task-based processes, and even patterns of decision-making.
"It's not some godlike figure," said Kush. "There are no novel insights that the AI is giving you."
Yet the fear remains that AI may become more masterful than humans. Will it replace humans in everyday economic and social life? Will it make our art obsolete? Will it eventually surpass human efficiency and perhaps even cause our extinction?
AI as a Tool to Enhance Our Own Thinking Capacities
We are already seeing AI used to compensate for our deficiencies in knowledge, reasoning, and critical thinking. In doing so, we hand over our abilities, capacities, and human potential, thus opening the door for the reality we fear: a world where human thought becomes subservient to the machines we created. Yet, AI also has the potential to broaden our knowledge base, increase our efficiency and effectiveness, and add layers to our perspective. The critical distinction lies in whether we allow AI to enhance or replace our own thinking capacities.
Abby McDonough PH '16 HMS '20 illustrates what it looks like in practice to use AI as a tool to enhance her own reasoning and critical thinking. During her pre-law undergraduate studies, Abby would write a draft of a paper and then sometimes use AI to reveal gaps. The AI would suggest counter-arguments and other points to consider. After further research, Abby could choose to synthesize these additional perspectives into her draft using her own words, producing a well-rounded and nuanced final product. (As a sidenote, ChatGPT was used to research this article.) This approach differs starkly from a student who puts a prompt into an AI and regurgitates the response. Not only does relying on AI as a crutch result in sloppy and uninteresting writing, it's also plagiarism.
Concerns about cheating help define what is and isn’t an acceptable use of AI, as educators from elementary to graduate classrooms consider how they can best prepare today's students for the rapidly evolving world of AI. Many schools take a hard stance and forbid any use of AI. Others are open to students and teachers exploring AI, as long as they acknowledge its use. At a philosophical level, schools and educators everywhere question what skills will best serve students as they enter a workforce that is being dramatically reshaped by artificial intelligence.
How Waldorf Pedagogy Prepares Students for Emerging Technologies
Although their teachers weren't aware that they were preparing students for the coming world of AI, Abby and Kush both credit High Mowing School and Waldorf education with providing them the skills to use AI effectively even though tools like ChatGPT didn't exist only a few years ago when they were in high school. Waldorf schools have a reputation of being avoidant of technology, yet this reputation doesn’t accurately or fairly capture a Waldorf approach to technology. Indeed, the Waldorf approach positions technology as a servant to human creativity and productivity. The pedagogy provides guardrails to prevent premature exposure to and reliance on technology, so that students have the time and opportunity to develop their own capacities of discernment and judgment. Whatever new technology comes along, Waldorf education ensures that students have the moral compass to guide them as technologies emerge and develop.
From the science lab to the art studio, High Mowing students learn to keenly observe what's in front of them, rather than what they assume or have been conditioned to see. After years of training in observation and hands-on coursework, Abby can easily identify an AI-generated image or AI-created text. "When you know what it takes to create something real, it’s easy to spot the AI," she explains. "It just feels fake." She also recognizes that as AI improves and evolves, this may become more difficult.
Recognizing bias is an important skill in navigating a world where information inundates us from a plethora of sources, including AI. Rather than relying purely on the thinking mind to recognize truth, Waldorf pedagogy also trains the sense of feeling. Before sitting down to write an essay or complete an assignment, students first connect with their inner self. "Students must ask, 'How can Iaddress this problem?'," explained humanities and drama teacher Wendy Bruneau. "The point is to think, not just churn out words. The evidence of the inner process is in the writing."
Kush echoed this perspective: "AI can give you all the answers in the world, but the main thing that the human is driving is the problem formulation. Learn how to really frame the problem in your mind, so you know exactly what you should be expecting as an output." Whether the output is a student essay or an algorithm feeding a tech startup, the work begins within oneself.
Yet the work does not remain within oneself. Waldorf schools like High Mowing do not merely graduate self-aware individuals; at its heart, Waldorf is a social education that holds a shared commitment to our individual and collective responsibility in the world. Developing empathy and a deep awareness of each person’s unique qualities provides an antidote to all things artificial. "People have empathy, AI does not," Kush noted. "AI has information to give you, but the real human experience comes with interacting with people, feeling, seeing, doing."
As AI can easily produce greater quantities with more speed, the human element becomes increasingly important in cutting through the noise. This is where Waldorf education shines. It requires students to know themselves deeply and then use their strengths and passions as a catalyst for positive change in the world.
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